The National Basketball Association (NBA) today announced that the league’s 14th Lunar New Year (LNY) celebration will tip off today and run through Wednesday, February 12. The celebration will feature more than 100 live game broadcasts, a new television spot, original social and digital content, and a series of community and fan engagement activities featuring NBA Legend Shawn Marion.
NBA team celebrations will tip off on Thursday, January 23, when the Golden State Warriors visit the Sacramento Kings, and the Houston Rockets host the Cleveland Cavaliers. Twenty-one NBA teams will celebrate the Year of the Snake with in-arena activations and/or social and digital content.
The campaign launched with a new television spot entitled, “Prosperity Year Adventure,” featuring Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards and New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson participating in a series of basketball-themed LNY activities alongside families and children celebrating the holiday.
The league’s LNY celebration will also feature a series of NBA Cares community outreach activities attended by Marion, including an interactive basketball activity for wheelchair basketball players in Beijing and a fan activation in Hong Kong.
Throughout the multiweek celebration, fans will be able to participate in several LNY-themed social media activations, including the chance to win NBA-themed prizes and purchase special-edition NBA-themed Year of the Snake merchandise.
“Prosperity Year Adventure” Television Spot:
Brunson and Edwards star in a new television spot where the All-Star guards are transformed into several basketball-themed settings alongside family and children celebrating the holiday, including as Mahjong pieces, door gods, and candy figures at an outdoor basketball competition. The spot will air on more than 25 of the league’s media partner platforms in Asia, including Alipay, Astro, CCTV-5, CCTV.com, CCTV 2 Video, CMG Mobile, China Mobile HD, China Mobile MIGU Video, Eclat, Elta, FPT, Great Sports, the iSMG App, Kuaishou, LINE, M Plus Live, Now TV, SiTV, Tencent News, Tencent Sports, Tencent Video, Truevisions, Videoland, ViuTV, WeChat Video, and Weibo.
NBA Cares Community Outreach Activities:
As part of a series of NBA Cares LNY community engagement activities, Shawn Marion will participate in an interactive basketball activity for 20 wheelchair basketball players in Beijing on Jan. 22, where he will share tips to help the players elevate their game and join them for calligraphy, paper-cutting and dumpling-making in celebration of LNY. Marion will then visit Hong Kong on Jan. 25 to take part in a series of LNY-themed activities, including a lion dance and other activations to celebrate the Year of the Snake with local fans.
Interactive Social and Digital Campaigns:
Fans can participate in a variety of interactive LNY-themed social media activities and contests starting this week, including:
- Beginning Jan. 20, China Mobile MIGU will launch an interactive AR game for fans to take virtual selfie photos and videos with select NBA players by scanning any of the NBA Logoman, NBA-MIGU logo lockup, MIGU logo or China Mobile logo on MIGU Video. The selfies can also be customized into video ringtones.
- Starting Jan. 20, fans can participate in Alipay’s NBA-themed “Collect 5 Fu” campaign by scanning the Chinese character “Fu” or the NBA LNY logo on Alipay to collect five NBA-themed designs of the character and have the chance to win NBA-themed LNY red envelopes and merchandise.
- Starting Jan. 22, fans can participate in the “NBA Lucky Bag” campaign on Weibo by completing a series of tasks for a chance to win NBA LNY snake plush toys, merchandise, autographed jerseys and photos.
- Beginning Jan. 22, fans will have access to NBA-themed WeChat red envelope covers via interactive games on the NBA’s LNY WeChat microsite.
- Also starting Jan. 22, fans can scan the Wukang Mansion in Shanghai, the Drum Tower in Beijing and the Londoner’s Big Ben in Macao on the NBA App to unlock special LNY animations featuring a virtual basketball backboard with LNY elements.
- Beginning Jan. 26, fans can take part in interactive online activities launched on CCTV.com’s social media accounts by sharing screenshots of their favorite moments from games aired on CCTV.
- Starting Jan. 27, fans can participate in lucky draw campaigns on Great Sports’ official Weibo and WeChat accounts for the chance to win LNY-themed gifts.
- Starting Jan. 28, CMG Mobile will launch in-game sweepstake activities for fans, and Tencent’s online activations for fans to win NBA merchandise will go live.
Official Merchandise and In-Store Activations:
The NBA Stores in Beijing, Guangzhou and Tianjin will participate in the celebration through in-store LNY merchandise, Year of the Snake decorations, and special promotions:
- Special-edition NBA merchandise with Year of the Snake designs including Wilson’s “Year of the Snake” basketball will be available for purchase in-store and on select NBA e-commerce platforms in the region, including TMALL, JD, Douyin and Dewu.
- NBA Kids stores will provide kids and fans with free hoop-shooting games, the opportunity to customize LNY greeting cards with NBA-themed props and decorations, and special LNY merchandise promotions.
- NBA ATELIER, NBA China’s premium lifestyle apparel brand, will launch a LNY collection at its store in Taikoo Li, Sanlitun, Beijing and on the brand’s Tmall flagship store and WeChat mini program.
